Saturday, December 20, 2008

Are We Too Complacent?

So, there had been some use for the terrorism warnings that have been on a rewind constantly on MRT trains yesterday.

Smoke billowed out from our MRT trains on Thursday afternoon. And no one panicked.

It could have been terrorists who have just let loose some poisonous gas. It could have been an overheating occurring somewhere in the train. Or it could simply have been someone spraying insecticide.

But no one panicked.

Although the commuters saw smoke on the north bound MRT train yesterday, no one painted the worst case scenario.

No one even bothered to follow the tips dished out by the video on constant rewind in trains.

People just sat around and cursed under their breath over a missed appointment when SMRT announced that they should evacuate the trains.

The nonchalance of Singaporeans amazes me. This wasn't even a black bag tugged neatly under the MRT seat. (if you watch those videos on the trains, you get what I mean) This was actually smoke emanating from the MRT.

Yet nobody thought anything was wrong.

Where was the sense of social responsibility? Are Singaporeans so complacent that we believe that we are totally free from terror attacks?

Although this incident proved to be a false alarm, it nonetheless shows that Singaporeans are a 'bochup' lot.

They prefer to believe that Singapore will never experience the terror attacks that rocked Madrid, London and US.

Even the recent escape of Mas Selamat, a highly skilled terrorist, had no effect on them.

Our country may be safe and well patrolled. But complacency will do nobody any good.

If that smoke was a sign of a terror attack, Singaporeans would have been caught like a deer in headlights.

And the blame game will start.

When in actual fact, Singaporeans have no one to blame but themselves for such complacency.